Steve Fretzin sits down with Josh Hodges to discuss how a blue-collar background and a focus on Kruger & Hodges allowed him to dominate a “Blue Ocean” legal market. See how this “Hometown Lawyer” moved from third-shift factory work to running a thriving personal injury practice by prioritizing community over the big-city grind.
Most lawyers follow a predictable path from high school to the JD. Josh Hodges isn’t “most lawyers.” Josh grew up working blue-collar jobs, including third-shift factory stints, and didn’t finish his undergraduate degree until he was 29. By then, he was a father with a renewed sense of urgency.
After excelling in law school and landing a prestigious “Big Law” gig in the Midwest, Josh realized the corporate life wasn’t for him. He wanted to help the people he grew up with—the ones who were calling him because he was the only lawyer they knew. In 2017, he quit the best-paying job he’d ever had to launch Kruger & Hodges.
The move wasn’t without stress. Within months of opening the firm, Josh’s second daughter was born with a serious genetic disorder, and his wife had to quit her job to provide full-time care. “It put the extra pressure on me,” Josh recalls. “Failure wasn’t an option. I was sitting on the floor of the hospital with my laptop out, hiring people on Upwork to help me build a website because that’s all I could afford.”
One of the key lessons Josh shares is the necessity of becoming a “student of the game.” You can’t just be a good lawyer; you have to be a great business person. Josh spent his early days reading every article, listening to every podcast (including this one!), and studying SEO until he could write his own website content better than an agency could.
Many lawyers, especially solos, operate on an island. Josh avoided this by seeking out mentors who weren’t just good at lawyering, but good at business. He sought out accountants, entrepreneurs, and other lawyers in non-competing jurisdictions to crowdsource ideas. This mirrors what I’ve done with my Rainmaker Roundtables—getting high-profile folks in a room to fill the gaps in each other’s games.
Hamilton, Ohio, isn’t a tiny village, but it’s far from the crowded skyscrapers of Cincinnati. Josh recognized that many rural counties are legal deserts. While other PI lawyers were fighting for billboard space on the highway, Josh was focusing on becoming the “Hometown Lawyer.”
Josh’s social media strategy is a masterclass in authenticity. Instead of the typical “Call me if you’re injured” commercials, his firm produces the “Around Town Minute.” They send a videographer to highlight a local cabinet shop, a non-profit, or a tow-truck driver. Josh isn’t even in the videos, but his logo is persistent in the corner.
“People think lawyers are jerks,” Josh says. “But they look at my page and see a guy who is giving back every day. It builds friends, and in life, givers eventually get back enough.”
The “Entrepreneur’s Trap” is running before you think things through. Josh successfully opened offices in towns with zero injury lawyers, but he quickly hit a snag: how do you find experienced paralegals in a town with no law firms?
The solution was to pivot from marketing to operations. Josh hired a full-time trainer and consultants to build a recruitment and training system from scratch. He learned that while “no cases” is bad, “too many cases” with no staff is a nightmare. He emphasizes the importance of not delaying hard personnel decisions. If someone isn’t a fit after you’ve provided the training, you have to let them find something they are better at. Delaying the inevitable only drags down the firm.
Kruger & Hodges is a personal injury law firm dedicated to serving Hamilton, Ohio, and the surrounding rural communities. By combining big-firm experience with small-town service, they’ve redefined what it means to be a “Hometown Lawyer.” Whether it’s a car accident or a complex civil matter, they focus on results and community trust.
Ready to become a student of the game? Listen to the episode or contact Kruger & Hodges. Be sure to visit Legal Broadcasting Company often for our latest podcasts.
This article was written by Legal Broadcasting Company, and is based on the episode of Be That Lawyer hosted by Steve Fretzin.
Absolutely. If you niche down but expand your geographic reach to several surrounding rural counties, you can easily access a population of 150,000+ people where you are the only specialist in the area.
Josh and Steve agree: give it at least a year. You have to treat it as a lifestyle and a way of networking, not a “quick fix” for cases. Authenticity and consistency are the only ways to win.
Josh points to “rehabilitating” bad hires. Attorneys are often “soft” on people and try to save roles that aren’t working. Being realistic about turnover is essential for firm health.
